Vixen

Women of all walks of life gathered to hang out with Yandy Smith on Saturday night (May 18). But unlike a scene from Love & Hip Hop New York, there was no drama.

Hosted at the Nail Boutique in Brooklyn, the “Everything Girls Love: Because You Deserve It” event was all about the empowerment of women. “I felt like women needed a network of sisterhood,” Smith explained. “It’s not about what you have on, the latest shoes. It’s about the real nitty gritty, unveiled, un-judged sister talk.”

Everything Girls Love (EGL) is an organization founded by Yandy among other business-minded women where they “personify the phrase ‘girl power.’” With over a hundred women present at the event, including makeup artists and vendors selling everything from Hennessy cupcakes to weaves and eyelashes, the program’s mission statement holds true.

“The mission of EGL is being a woman who cannot compromise her family or her career but can be great at both. We are women that come from diverse backgrounds,” she says. “We all have different careers, we all have different ethnicities, but one thing we have in common is focusing on our families and our businesses and being great at both things.”

As the head of her own music management company, star of the VH1 series LHHNY, the brand ambassador of My Extensionz and president of EGL, Smith is about her dollars. But as a mother, first and foremost, the 32-year-old media mogul is proof that you can balance business and family. Because of that the diaper-changing, bottle-feeding vet has a bit of advice for Tamar Braxton and other mommies-to-be.

“Embrace every moment. Take as many photos as you can, take as many videos as you can. Every single day is changing. I look at my boy and every single day he’s doing something different. Every single day there’s a new hill that he overcomes.”

She later added, “You can be great at being both a mom and a businesswoman, you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.”

A great businesswoman she is, the multi-million dollar entrepreneur is just getting started. EGL not only has a magazine and accessory line that’s selling internationally, the organization is also expanding to include a loungewear line.

“When I got cast in Love & Hip Hop, I looked at it as an opportunity to promote a brand. People look at reality TV and think, ‘Oh it’s ratchet.’ But if you use it as a platform and a brand, it’s worth more than I can tell you.” — Shannon Powell